Daily Archives: 8 November, 2012

Those who raid seriously are sometimes a little extreme in views, and those who don’t raid with passion can sometimes not understand the devotion and effort it takes. Thus I seek to insult a wide cross-section of the community with the “Are you a Raider?” flowchart.

Its been done before, likely better elsewhere too. However this post was written more as therapy for me in terms of dealing with that last decision point before the final answer, than actually seeking to be innovative or compassionate when thinking about raids. If you take a look you’ll see that the criteria I’ve suggested are really very open and far “less strict” than many raiding guilds. That’s just my 2c perspective.

I get miffed when a player has a sense of entitlement beyond the rules well established and what is reasonable – so I wasted a few minutes of therapy crafting this sheet so I can always keep myself in check when it comes to getting raid ready, and then staying raid ready.

Some days I’m not a raider by this measure, and that can be OK in isolation. It’s not OK when it’s to the detriment of others. eg. I’m still using Unholy for Death Knight dps when Frost 2H or dual wield is technically higher. My reason is that I grok Unholy far more, and the difference is slight. That said, I’m switching within a week or so, or overnight if I get another 1-handed weapon of item level 463. Excuses, excuses.

This post was just going to be a pic of the flowchart, but I’m mid-rant now so here is some other stuff I left out:

An alt spec geared up as well as main spec. You’re not “geared” until you have two viable roles, or two modes for the pure dps classes who sometimes suffer due to spec choice.

Actually understanding why your stats of priority are the way they are, and what your soft caps and hard caps are. This includes making an intelligent and defensible choice when it comes to things like Mitigation vs Avoidance for tanks, etc.

Turn up on time, and take your bio breaks when everyone else does.

Raid awareness and no fire standing (google them, its faster)

Do research. Be willing to use improvement advice websites like Mr Robot or others.

Be humble about being right.

Don’t be a greedy gear hound.

In our guild only the Raid Leader gets to hop from the first box to the last box, and that person would get vilified socially if they skipped over any checklists anyway.

The Cinder Kitten pet (nom nom nom) is the most recent little gem being sold as a vanity item in the wow store. It’s cute, grants no mechanical advantage, the proceeds go to charity (Red Cross), and is high res entertainment.

More power to all involved I say!

Will I buy one? Probably not, but I love that these are around for the folks who like pets, and also that Blizzard-Acti keep the charity spirit alive.

If you want to cry about the fall of humanity have a read in the Ref link below – some of the comments really are made by the lowest scum our poor dilapidated race has to offer. No good deed goes unpunished.

I wrote a post a while back about farming for Motes of Harmony, and the one thing which really gives fantastic return is the Tiller’s Farm. Its a safe 10-12 (or more) motes a day if that is all you did. And that effort takes about 15-30 minutes max. Sheesh, if you’re not doing it – get on it.

Granted you need the rep to unlock the seeds, and that takes some grinding. However these dailies grant cash and side rewards, with motes on top. It really feels like something that the game got almost perfect in Mists of Pandaria.

With a slow steady effort even a slow player can get a fair reward for time spent. Regular readers and followers of all the news will know this, but the impact of 10 free motes per day is a huge potential source for new gear, or even money if you are happy to craft gear to sell. The seeds are cheap, and you are in effect paying for the effort. Players with alchemists are doubly blessed due to the metal transmutes too.